ADULTERY TEST

1. Adultery Test

a) This is the law concerning a wayward wife – or a husband’s suspicions against his wife – to determine whether or not she has been unfaithful to him. He shall bring her before the Lord and the priest shall handle the situation as outline below:

b) 16The priest shall bring her before the Lord, 17and take holy water in a clay jar and mix into it dust from the floor of the Tabernacle. 18He shall unbind her hair and place the suspicion offering in her hands to determine whether or not her husband’s suspicion is justified. The priest shall stand before her holding the jar of bitter water that brings a curse. 19He shall require her to swear that she is innocent, and then he shall say to her, ‘If no man has slept with you except your husband, be free from the effects of this bitter water that causes the curse. (Numbers 5:16-19 TLB)

c) 27If she has been defiled, having committed adultery against her husband, the water will become bitter within her, and her body will swell and her thigh will rot, and she shall be a curse among the people. 28But if she is pure and has not committed adultery she shall be unharmed and will soon become pregnant. (Numbers 5: 27-28 TLB)

2. Why the test?

a) The test for adultery served to remove a jealous husband's suspicion. Trust between husband and wife had to be completed eroded for a man to bring his wife to the priest for this type of test!

b) Today, priests and pastors help to restore marriages by counselling couples who have lost faith in each other. Whether justified or not, suspicion must be removed for a marriage to survive and trust to be restored.

3. Prayer focus

a) Pray that married couples always stay true to each other. They value the trust for each other. They will remain faithful to one another and will not allow 3rd party in!

i) 6“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’7‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mark 10: 6 - 9 NIV)